Toy building set

ABSTRACT

A toy building set comprising a number of moulded building elements and where the toy building set furthermore comprises at least one layered building element being designed by building layer on layer of plastic material, like in 3D-printing, and being provided with coupling parts by which the layered building element can be coupled together with one or more of the moulded building elements. In that the coupling parts of the layered building element are designed incompatibly with the male and female coupling parts of the moulded building elements, and in that the toy building set furthermore comprises a number of moulded adapter elements having coupling parts that are designed compatibly in view of coupling together with the male and/or female coupling parts of the moulded building elements as well as coupling parts that are designed compatibly with the coupling parts of the layered building element it is made possible to obtain a stable releasable coupling of the layered building element of one or more of the moulded building elements.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a toy building set comprising a numberof moulded building elements, each of which is provided with a first setof mutually compatibly designed male and/or female coupling parts bywhich they can be mutually coupled to build a construction comprisingtwo or more such building elements, and where the toy building setfurthermore comprises at least one layered building element constructedby building layer on layer of plastic material, like in 3D-printing, andbeing provided with coupling parts by which the layered building elementcan be coupled together with the moulded building elements.

STATE OF THE ART

A toy building set comprising building elements or building blocks isknown in many different embodiments, and in some of these the individualbuilding elements are provided with a number of male and/or femalecoupling parts, e.g. in the form of coupling knobs projecting from asurface of the building element in such manner that these coupling knobsmay engage with complementarily shaped coupling means of a secondbuilding element, whereby the coupling knobs of one of the buildingelements are received wholly or partly in the complementary couplingmeans of the second building element.

Thus, as such toy building sets often consist of relatively hard andinflexible 3-dimensional blocks and elements having the same basicconstruction and form, these toy building sets are extremely suited forbuilding relatively massive constructions which are intended to looklike buildings, machines and other inorganic and immobile constructions,whereas it is difficult solely by using the building elements in the toybuilding set to construct a building or a construction having moreorganic shapes, such as bi-curvature surfaces etc.

Today, toy building sets are known where the toy building set itselfcomprises specially designed elements that can be built together withother building elements of the toy building set. The specially designedbuilding elements thus offer the possibility of building buildings andconstructions which are more like the real life embodiments. In this wayit allows the user a certain additional flexibility in the building of aconstruction as the design elements, although they are often made for asingle purpose, can also with some imagination be used in otherconnections.

Moreover, in addition it is known to manufacture building elementsresembling known building elements and which can be coupled togetherwith these, which building elements are manufactured by sequentialconstruction of the building element by laying layer on layer of plasticmaterial on top of each other, simultaneously with the thickness andextent of the layers being controlled to the effect that there is builta layered building element. Such manufacturing methods are known by thecollective name “rapid prototyping”, and an example of such a process is3D-printing where the individual layers are made by printing athermoplastic plastic material in a number of layers.

As production machines for this 3D-printing process are getting quitecheap and thereby available even to private users, there is thereby theopportunity to make individual designs, and in such a process it isknown to e.g. make 3D-printed adapters that can work as intermediate forthe coupling together of building elements from various toy setmanufacturers.

However, in practice it has turned out that e.g. 3D-printed buildingelements are often difficult to use for establishing an acceptablecoupling together of these building elements with existing mouldedbuilding elements. Mainly, this is due to the rapid prototyping processbeing difficult to control as regards production with very finetolerances of in particular the measurements of the coupling parts, andthis entails problems of the quality of the retention force between thebuilding elements of a construction, as fine tolerance is required toobtain a retention force between the building blocks which is neithertoo high nor too low.

THE OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

On this background it is the object of the present invention to providea toy building set and a method of manufacturing such a toy building setwhereby it is possible to a greater extent than hitherto to buildindividually designed constructions and buildings by using the toybuilding set .

This is achieved by providing a toy building set as mentioned in thepreamble, which is special in that the coupling parts of the layeredbuilding element are designed incompatibly with the male and femalecoupling parts of the moulded building elements, and in that the toybuilding set furthermore comprises a number of moulded adapter elementshaving coupling parts that are compatibly designed in view of couplingtogether with the male and/or female coupling parts of the mouldedbuilding elements as well as coupling parts that are designed compatiblywith the coupling parts of the layered building element.

As it is possible to thereby design the moulded adaptor elements withcoupling parts taking into consideration that a 3D-printed buildingelement cannot necessarily be manufactured cheaply and rapidly with thesame fine tolerances which it is possible to achieve by moulding ofbuilding elements, it is possible to build constructions and buildingsby using more individually designed layers, such as 3D-printed buildingelements, and at the same time achieving a very high quality of theretention power between the individual parts of the construction orbuilding.

In this connection it is pointed out that by the words compatible andincompatible coupling parts in connection with this invention what ismeant is coupling parts which it is possible or impossible,respectively, to couple together for mutual retention.

In this connection it is clearly an advantage if the layered buildingelement does not have coupling parts allowing it to be coupled togetherwith a moulded building element without the use of an adaptor element.

Especially, it is advantageous if the coupling parts of the layeredbuilding element are designed as a female coupling part, and if the,relatively to the female coupling part of the layered building element,compatibly designed coupling part of the adaptor element is a malecoupling part.

The coupling parts of the layered building' element and of thecomplementarily thereto designed coupling part of the adaptor elementmay advantageously be designed so that the adaptor element, aftercoupling together of an adaptor element and a layered building element,get stuck relatively to each other with no possibility of being mutuallyrotatable or being displaceable relatively to each other.

In this connection a preferred embodiment of the invention is designedso that the coupling parts of the layered building element are designedas a duct having an essentially square cross-section with four sidesurfaces, and so that the coupling parts of the adaptor element comprisetwo resilient taps that are designed so that at insertion into the ductthey abut against two opposite side surfaces of the duct, and where theresilient taps are each provided with flanges projecting away from eachother on each separate resilient tap and which enter into engagementwith a correspondingly designed flange arranged at the duct so that theadaptor element cannot be inserted into or removed from the duct withoutpressing the two resilient taps against each other.

In a further preferred embodiment the resilient taps have a lengthcorresponding to the length of the duct, and the taps have a proximalend at which they are secured to the remaining portion of the adaptorelement, and an opposite distal end, and where the flanges of theresilient taps are placed at the distal end, and where correspondinglyan outwardly projecting flange is arranged at the proximal end of theflange. Thereby the two elements are inter-locked after couplingtogether and can only be released by pressing the two resilient tapsagainst each other.

In one embodiment the toy building set can be of the type where theindividual moulded building elements are so designed that at couplingtogether they retain each other only by friction between surfaces of themale and female coupling parts abutting and pressing against each other.

In this connection toy building set can also comprise moulded buildingelements which in addition to the first set of mutually compatiblydesigned male and/or female coupling parts also have a second set ofmutually compatible male and female coupling parts, and where the firstand the second sets of mutually compatible male and female couplingparts are mutually incompatible.

Also, the toy building set may be designed so that the second set ofmutually compatibly designed male and/or female coupling parts are sodesigned that it can be coupled together by a snap function.

In connection with a toy building set of the last-mentioned type it mayin a preferred embodiment comprise a first group of adaptor elementshaving coupling parts that are compatible with the first set of mutuallycompatibly designed male and/or female coupling parts and a second groupadapter elements having coupling parts that are compatible with thesecond set of mutually compatibly designed male and/or female couplingparts.

Furthermore, the invention relates to a method of manufacturing a toybuilding set according to one or more of the preceding claims, themethod comprising the following process stages in arbitrary succession:

Moulding, such as spray moulding, of a first group of building elementsdesigned with a first set of mutually compatibly designed male and/orfemale coupling parts.

Manufacturing of at least one layered building element built bysequentially putting layer on layer of plastic material on top of eachother, like in 3D-printing, and where the second building element hascoupling parts designed incompatibly with the first set of mutuallycompatibly designed male and/or female coupling parts.

Moulding, such as spray moulding, of one or more adaptor elementsdesigned with coupling parts being compatible with the first set ofmutually compatibly designed male and/or female coupling parts as wellas coupling parts being compatible with the coupling parts of thelayered building element.

FIGURES

FIG. 1: Is a perspective view of a toy building set according to theinvention, shown as a partly exploded view.

FIGS. 2, 3 and 4: Are all of them perspective views of differentembodiments of adaptor element according to the invention.

EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

Thus, FIG. 1 shows an example of a 3D-printed building element 1, thesaid building element being designed as the tip of an aircraft, butwhich can in principle easily be printed by using generally know andrelatively cheap 3D-printers capable of printing such components in agiven plastic material, such as thermoplastic.

The 3D-printed building element 1 is designed in the printing process soas to comprise a total of four essentially identical and square ducts 2,each of which is designed in view of receiving one of the four shownmoulded adapter elements 3 which, for example, are manufactured by spraymoulding of the adaptor element in a mould adapted for that purpose,which has one or more mould cavities corresponding to the shape of theadaptor element, but which according to the invention may have beenmanufactured by another process using a moulding tool with a similarmould cavity.

In view of comprehensibility, it is shown in the figure that two of themoulded adaptor elements 3 are mounted in each separate square duct, andthe two other adaptor elements 3 are shown at a distance from the squareducts 2 into which they can be inserted and secured, in that the mouldedadaptor element 3 are each provided at one of their ends with tworesilient and elastic taps 4 that are so designed that at insertion intothe duct they abut against two opposite side surfaces of the duct 2, andwhere the resilient taps 4 are each provided with flanges 5 projectingaway from each other on each separate resilient tap 4, and which passinto engagement with a correspondingly designed flange arranged at theduct 2 so that the adaptor element 3 cannot be inserted into or removedfrom the duct 2 without the two resilient taps 4 being pressed in thedirection towards each other.

FIG. 1 also shows an additional building element in the form of amoulded building element 6 the contours of which are here shown bydotted lines; this building element could, in principle, be constitutedby any known and moulded building element of a toy building set but isshown here in the form of a moulded building element having a box-shapedbody part 7, which at its top side 8 is provided with a number ofcoupling parts in the form of coupling knobs 9 and at its bottom side(not shown) is provided with recesses forming coupling parts that aredesigned complementarily relatively to the coupling knobs 9 and in suchmanner that two or more moulded building elements 6 of this type can becoupled together by means of these coupling parts.

As shown, the moulded building element 6 also has a number ofthrough-going annular coupling holes 10, and it is shown that in one ofthese coupling holes there is disposed one of the abovementioned mouldedadapter elements 3, this adapter element 3, like the other adapterelements 3, being provided at its other end with a coupling part in theform of a slotted coupling pipe 11 designed complementarily with theannular coupling holes 10, so that the coupling pipe 11 can be insertedinto and retained in the moulded building element 6.

FIGS. 2, 3 and 4 show other embodiments of the moulded adapter elements12, 13 and 14, all of which are provided with two resilient and elastictaps 4, which in the same way as the moulded adapter elements 3 shown inFIG. 1 are so designed that at insertion into a duct 2 of the 3D-printedbuilding element 1 they abut against two opposite side surfaces of theduct 2 and in such manner that the adapter element 12, 13 or 14 cannotbe inserted into or removed from the duct 2 without the two resilienttaps 4 being pressed in the direction towards each other.

Alternatively to the coupling pipes 11, shown in FIG. 1, of the mouldedadapter elements 3, the moulded adapter elements 12, 13 and 14 shown inFIGS. 2, 3 and 4 are designed with coupling knobs 15 or a coupling plate16, respectively, by which they can be coupled together with othercoupling parts than the annular coupling holes shown in the mouldedbuilding element 6 in FIG. 1.

The present invention is described in connection with a toy buildingset, but it can be used in connection with other types of products wherethe moulded toy building elements are replaced by a given product thatcan be coupled together with the layered building element by means ofthe moulded adapter element.

In addition, both the moulded building element 6 and the moulded adapterelements 3, 12, 13 and 14 may be designed differently, it being possibleto e.g. design the coupling parts thereof in many other ways withoutthereby departing from the principle of the present invention.

1. A toy building set comprising a number of moulded building elements,each of which is provided with a first set of mutually compatiblydesigned male and/or female coupling parts by which they can be mutuallycoupled together to build a construction comprising two or more suchbuilding elements, and where the toy building set furthermore comprisesat least one layered building element constructed by building layer onlayer of plastic material, like in 3D-printing, and being provided withcoupling parts by which the layered building element can be coupledtogether with the moulded building elements, characterized in that thecoupling parts of the layered building element are shaped incompatiblywith the male and female coupling parts of the moulded building elementsand in that the toy building set furthermore comprises a number ofmoulded adapter elements having coupling parts that are designedcompatibly in view of coupling together with the male and/or femalecoupling parts of the moulded building elements as well as couplingparts that are designed compatibly with the coupling parts of thelayered building element.
 2. A toy building set according to claim 1,characterized in that the layered building element does not havecoupling parts allowing it to be coupled together with a mouldedbuilding element without the use of an adaptor element.
 3. A toybuilding set according to claim 1, characterized in that the couplingparts of the layered building element are designed as a female couplingpart and in that the, relatively to the female coupling part of thelayered building element, compatibly designed coupling part of theadaptor element is a male coupling part.
 4. A toy building set accordingto claim 1, characterized in that the coupling parts of the layeredbuilding element and of the complementarily thereto designed couplingpart of the adaptor element are so designed that the adaptor element,after coupling together of an adaptor element and a layered buildingelement, get stuck relatively to each other.
 5. A toy building setaccording to claim 4, characterized in that the coupling parts of thelayered building element are designed as a duct having an essentiallysquare cross-section with four side surfaces and in that the couplingparts of the adaptor element comprise two resilient taps that are sodesigned that at insertion into the duct they abut against two oppositeside surfaces of the duct and where the resilient taps are each providedwith flanges projecting away from each other on each separate resilienttap and which enter into engagement with a correspondingly designedflange arranged at the duct so that the adaptor element cannot beinserted into or removed from the duct without pressing the tworesilient taps against each other.
 6. A toy building element accordingto claim 5, characterized in that the resilient taps have a lengthcorresponding to the length of the duct and in that the taps have aproximal end at which they are secured to the remaining portion of theadaptor element and an opposite distal end, and where the flanges of theresilient taps are placed at the distal end, and where correspondinglyan outwardly projecting flange is arranged at the proximal end of theflange.
 7. A toy building set according to claim 1, characterized inthat at coupling together they retain each other only by frictionbetween surfaces of the male and female coupling parts abutting andpressing against each other.
 8. A toy building set according to claim 7,characterized in that the toy building set also comprises mouldedbuilding elements which in addition to the first set of mutuallycompatibly designed male and/or female coupling parts also have a secondset of mutually compatible male and female coupling parts, and where thefirst and the second sets of mutually compatible male and femalecoupling parts are mutually incompatible.
 9. A toy building setaccording to claim 8, characterized in that the second set of mutuallycompatible designed male and/or female coupling parts are so designedthat it can be coupled together by a snap function.
 10. A toy buildingset according to claim 8, characterized in that it comprises a firstgroup of adaptor elements having coupling parts that are compatible withthe first set of mutually compatibly designed male and/or femalecoupling parts as well as a second group of adaptor elements havingcoupling parts that are compatible with the second set of mutuallycompatibly designed male and/or female coupling parts.
 11. A method ofmanufacturing a toy building set according to claim 1, the methodcomprising the following process steps in arbitrary succession:moulding, such as spray moulding, of a first group of building elementsdesigned with a first set of mutually compatibly designed male and/orfemale coupling parts, preparation of at least one layered buildingelement built by sequentially putting layer on layer of plastic materialon top of each other, like in 3D-printing, and where the second buildingelement has coupling parts designed incompatibly with the first set ofmutually compatibly designed male and/or female coupling parts,moulding, such as spray moulding, of one or more adaptor elementsdesigned with coupling parts being compatible with the first set ofmutually compatibly designed male and/or female coupling parts as wellas coupling parts that are compatible with the coupling parts of thelayered building element.
 12. A toy building set according to claim 9,characterized in that it comprises a first group of adaptor elementshaving coupling parts that are compatible with the first set of mutuallycompatibly designed male and/or female coupling parts as well as asecond group of adaptor elements having coupling parts that arecompatible with the second set of mutually compatibly designed maleand/or female coupling parts.